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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24946924">A Funny Thing Happened While You Were Away</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptplayer5701/pseuds/tptplayer5701'>tptplayer5701</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>"Mind Games"-verse [18]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Butterfly Miraculous, Established Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Fox Alya Césaire | Rena Rouge, Friendship, Horse Max Kanté | Pegasus, Kwami &amp; Miraculous Lore, Miraculous Holder Sabrina Raincomprix, New Miraculous, Post-Hawk Moth Defeat, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Turtle Nino Lahiffe | Carapace</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 08:28:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,986</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24946924</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptplayer5701/pseuds/tptplayer5701</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A "Mind Games"-verse "Spring Break" One-Shot</p><p>"Okay, don't freak out… The good news is that we got Chloe back…"</p><p>Ladybug's heart almost stopped. "Wait... WHAT?"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste &amp; Chloé Bourgeois &amp; Alya Césaire &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng &amp; Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Chloé Bourgeois, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Chloé Bourgeois &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug &amp; Sabrina Raincomprix, Chloé Bourgeois &amp; Sabrina Raincomprix, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug &amp; Sabrina Raincomprix, Max Kanté/Sabrina Raincomprix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>"Mind Games"-verse [18]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666807</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Funny Thing Happened While You Were Away</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This one-shot picks up right after Chapter 15 of “A Miraculous Adventure in America” and a little bit after “The Queen is Dead.” If you were wondering how Marinette would react to everything that happened while they were gone…</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Preference">“Okay, don’t freak out… The good news is that we got Chloe back…” Ladybug’s heart had almost stopped on hearing those words from Alya while handing the Dark Sword of the Mundane to Pegasus through a portal. She had thought it strange that Nino was wearing the Dog Miraculous and commented on that fact, never expecting <em>that</em> to be the explanation!</p><p class="Preference">“… Wait… <em>what?????</em>” Ladybug gasped when her brain caught up to her ears. She immediately jumped through the portal, followed by Cat Noir.</p><p class="Preference">“Did you really think that <em>wouldn’t</em> freak her out, babe?” Nino asked, hiding a smirk.</p><p class="Preference">“Yeah, yeah,” Alya retorted, glaring in his general direction. She turned back to Ladybug, just as she de-transformed. “So, anyways, how’s the trip going?”</p><p class="Preference">“Oh, no, Césaire,” Marinette ground out, eyes shooting daggers at her best friend. “You do <em>not</em> get to change the subject after throwing something like <em>that</em> at me! What do you <em>mean</em>, ‘we got Chloe back’!?!” Her jaw dropped. “Oh, God… did she get abducted by aliens or something???”</p><p class="Preference">Alya actually laughed nervously at that. “Of course not, girl! We would def have called you no matter what for something like an alien invasion! No… she just… maybe… got kidnapped by Lynchpin before you’d even left and we didn’t find out until you were already in the air. No big deal.” She laughed awkwardly. “But it’s all good: we got her back, like, yesterday! Well, you’d better get back to whatever you were doing before the portal closes. We’ll see you when you get back in a couple days!”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette’s eyes flashed dangerously. “You’re in luck, <em>girl</em>,” she replied acidly. “We happen to have <em>plenty</em> of time to discuss this before we have to be at the airport for our flight to New York! So why don’t you call up the others and we can all have a nice… chat.”</p><p class="Preference">Adrien chuckled but immediately froze when Marinette turned her glare on him.</p><p class="Preference">Alya paled. “Are–are you sure? I mean–”</p><p class="Preference">“Don’t worry about us,” Marinette retorted. “We’ve got a friend to let us know before we need to return. Her flight isn’t until tomorrow, anyways.”</p>
<hr/><p>Marinette tapped her foot impatiently and paced the far end of the meeting room while waiting for the other three to arrive. Adrien was lounging in his chair at the head of the long meeting table, conversing quietly with Nino, while Tikki and Plagg had disappeared through the ceiling to look for the rest of the Kwamis. Alya had tried to talk to Marinette, but she had just held up her hand in a demand for silence; she didn’t want to hear anything from her just yet.</p><p class="Preference">At last, Chloe pushed the door open and walked in, supported on either side by Max and Sabrina. Seeing the bruising on Chloe’s cheek and her black eye, Marinette immediately ran over to her and threw her arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug. Sabrina and Max released Chloe and took their seats on the opposite side of the table from Alya and Nino. Chloe hissed in pain as Adrien joined them, wrapping his arms around both girls and squeezing them tightly. Marinette loosened her grip slightly. “Sorry,” Chloe winced. “My ribs are still a little sore…”</p><p class="Preference">“I’m so sorry,” Marinette whispered, a little loudly, and glared across the room at Alya. “If I’d known–”</p><p class="Preference">“It’s not your fault,” Chloe replied, finally returning the hug. “Not even really <em>Alya</em>’s fault.”</p><p class="Preference">Alya snorted as Marinette released Chloe and took one of the two seats at the head of the table. Adrien took the other seat as Alya scoffed, “What she <em>means</em> is that she got kidnapped, woke up in a cell, and decided to suppress her emotions for almost a full week so Sabrina couldn’t find her, all so she could play ‘punching bag’ for a bunch of muscle-bound thugs and try to get some information about Lynchpin’s plans.”</p><p class="Preference">“Well it worked, didn’t it?” Chloe retorted without putting any force behind it. She collapsed into her seat across from Alya and next to Sabrina, trying to muster a sneer.</p><p class="Preference">“Yeah, we do know more now than we did last week,” Alya conceded, “but it would have been nice to have a <em>plan</em>, instead of you letting us worry about you for days!”</p><p class="Preference">Chloe smirked. “Why, Alya, I didn’t realize you cared.”</p><p class="Preference">“Enough!” Marinette almost shouted, rubbing her temples. “What happened?”</p><p class="Preference">Nino shrugged. “Pretty much what they said. Chloe was taken by Lynchpin during the press conference and we spent the week trying to get her back. We busted a bunch of Lynchpin’s other operations and probably found one of his police moles along the way, so it wasn’t a total loss, dudes.”</p><p class="Preference">“Mar,” Sabrina began, a soothing lilt to her voice, reaching across the table past Chloe and putting her hand on Marinette’s, “I know you’re upset, and that you are worried about us, but it’s okay. Alya and Nino wanted to try to handle this on their own. They wanted to let you know, but they care about you and knew you needed the vacation. We probably wouldn’t have found Chloe any sooner than she wanted to be found, regardless of whether you were here or not, and it wouldn’t have prevented Lynchpin from taking the Bee Miraculous <em>or</em> helped us get it back.”</p><p class="Preference">Marinette’s jaw dropped. “Wait, Lynchpin has the Bee Miraculous now??” she demanded, tugging on her pigtails, eyes roaming around the table frantically. “This is a disaster! Now he has <em>three</em> miraculous!”</p><p class="Preference">“<em>Three</em> miraculous?” Alya asked in confusion. “What’s the third one?”</p><p class="Preference">“His people probably stole the Bear and Dinosaur Miraculous a couple hours ago,” answered Adrien, rubbing Marinette’s back soothingly.</p><p class="Preference">“There’s a Bear <em>and</em> a Dinosaur Miraculous now?” Nino wondered. “How many more of these things <em>are</em> there?”</p><p class="Preference">“A lot more than we thought,” replied Adrien, raising his eyebrows.</p><p class="Preference">“And Lynchpin has three of them,” Marinette moaned.</p><p class="Preference">“I am afraid that is inaccurate,” Max stated, grimacing. “Lynchpin now has <em>four</em> miraculous for his nascent super-team.”</p><p class="Preference">“‘Four,’” Marinette repeated, jaw dropped open in surprise. She glared at Alya. “Which other one did he get?”</p><p class="Preference">“Hey, don’t look at me,” Alya protested, putting her hands up. “It’s not one of ours. He… <em>recruited</em>… that Bat Miraculous holder when he slipped away from Viperion and Ryoku last Saturday.”</p><p class="Preference">“I thought he was supposed to be a good guy,” commented Marinette, eyes widening in surprise.</p><p class="Preference">“So did they,” Alya replied sheepishly. “He sure fooled them.”</p><p class="Preference">“It’s not all bad news,” Nino added, wrapping an arm around Alya supportively. “At least he doesn’t have the Mkufu wa Wanyama anymore. Also, the Dove is going to stick around to help us deal with the Bat.”</p><p class="Preference">“And now there’s a Dove in town,” Adrien deadpanned. He jumped and nearly tipped his chair over backward as Plagg phased through the ceiling and hissed.</p><p class="Preference">“Oh, no,” Plagg groaned.</p><p class="Preference">Marinette gave him a look. “What’s wrong?”</p><p class="Preference">Tikki poked her head out of the ceiling next to Plagg. “He has a… <em>history</em> with Paxx – the Dove Kwami,” she explained. “Paxx… doesn’t exactly like him all that much.”</p><p class="Preference">“Are you saying that Plagg has a ‘crazy ex-girlfriend,’ and she’s a dove?” Adrien joked.</p><p class="Preference">“Just keep that crazy <em>bird</em> away from me!” Plagg growled, as Tikki dragged him back through the ceiling.</p><p class="Preference">“So Lynchpin is recruiting a miraculous team of his own, a Bat Miraculous user joined him, and now we have a Dove on our side,” Marinette observed, shaking her head.</p><p class="Preference">Sabrina smiled. “Viperion trusts her, and I haven’t sensed any concerning emotions from her yet.”</p><p class="Preference">“All the same,” Adrien announced, pulling Marinette into a tight hug, “Lynchpin is getting bold. He kidnapped a hero. What’s to stop him from doing it again?”</p><p class="Preference">“We have already discussed contingency plans for just such a situation,” answered Max, with a meaningful look at Chloe. “If a hero is kidnapped, we have instructed the others that their <em>first</em> order of business is to inform Sabrina of their location through their emotions. She will send an Akuma to communicate with them, and once that link has been established we can decide on a course of action.”</p><p class="Preference">“For the last time, ‘my bad,’” Chloe retorted, sticking her tongue out at him.</p><p class="Preference">Sabrina giggled and squeezed both Max’s and Chloe’s hands. Marinette surreptitiously raised an eyebrow in surprise.</p><p class="Preference">“I also designed a prototype Emergency Watch for all of our teammates to wear,” Max continued, sliding a small box down the length of the table. Marinette opened it to see a plain analog watch with a simple leather band. “They will of course have unique designs so they are not easily-identifiable, but they will all have the same basic functionality. I installed a radio receiver on the mansion roof last night, so if you press the button on the left side of the watch, it will send a single radio pulse that our computer system can detect, alerting us to the watch’s location. Press and hold that button and it will send a pulse every three minutes. I have not tested the range yet, but it will certainly cover all of Paris. The button on the right side will cause it to begin an audio recording which syncs to the cloud the moment it connects to the internet. Press and hold both buttons simultaneously for more than five seconds and the face will emit a single burst of photon energy at whatever is in front of it. That shorts out the watch battery and activates the locator beacon.” He gestured for Marinette to turn the watch over, and she found a small fingerprint reader on the watchband. “If the watch is removed by anyone other than the wearer, it will self-destruct a minute later and send out a radio pulse.”</p><p class="Preference">“You did all of that in one day?” Sabrina asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise.</p><p class="Preference">He shrugged. “I have been experimenting to build a device using the alien energy weapon technology for months. The basic concept for the watch was on my mind even before this incident; it simply required fine-tuning.”</p><p class="Preference">“And how much will each of these cost us to make?” Adrien asked, picking up the watch and examining it.</p><p class="Preference">“The royalties on approximately 96 copies of ‘Super Akuma Battle Melee,’” replied Max, grinning.</p><p class="Preference">“It’s so nice to hear that you all have such a good handle on this thing moving forward, but that doesn’t change the fact that <em>losing a hero or a miraculous is a big deal!</em>” Marinette growled. “So if this happens again, you need to call me!”</p><p class="Preference">“I know,” Alya told her, her lower lip quivering. “And if it happens again we absolutely will. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. We just wanted you to have a nice trip – what with Adrien planning to propose and all. We promised to hold down the fort for you. After the last two and a half years, the thought you deserved a break. We figured with all the Heroes of Paris keeping their eyes out and me, Max, and Sabrina all working the case practically 24 hours a day, we could hanld it on our own. If we hadn’t found her by today we were planning to call you then.”</p><p class="Preference">“Okay, fine,” Marinette admitted. “It was nice to leave and not worry about Paris for a change. And I will admit that we were needed where we were. But all the same!”</p><p class="Preference">“I know,” Sabrina told her calmly, “the rest of us are glad she’s safe, too.”</p><p class="Preference">Max frowned. “All of this does raise a valid concern, however. How are we to counter a Lynchpin who sits atop a vast Paris crime syndicate which has spread its tentacles beyond <em>Europe</em> in addition to now controlling his own team of evil miraculous users?”</p><p class="Preference">“It’s going to be more dangerous for us,” Marinette agreed. “Fortunately, in a couple days we will have help.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I don’t know if I’m ever going to work this into a story explicitly, but the Heroes of Paris will generally avoid using the Horse Miraculous for regular travel outside of Paris – certainly across national borders. This has less to do with legality and more to do with keeping secret identities: if they are traveling for personal/business reasons, their passports need to reflect the trip. So if Marinette and Adrien were to just stay in Paris now that they are “back,” their passport would be missing the stamp showing their return to France. Hence, tomorrow’s Epilogue to “A Miraculous Adventure in America” will cover their “official” return to Paris.</p><p>Now that the Heroes of Paris have international allies, Chloe is going to talk to her father, who will explain to his government contacts that the Heroes of Paris will use the Horse Miraculous for travel with some restrictions – basically that they won’t use it frivolously or to violate customs/import restrictions.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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